ANKARA – Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke by phone on Saturday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Ati and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, urging the two governments to support renewed efforts to implement the US-Iranian memorandum of understanding and prevent escalating tensions in the region from turning into a broader confrontation.
The calls came a day after Cairo and Amman jointly condemned what the two governments called Iran’s “aggressive attacks” against Arab countries – the toughest stance by two of Turkey’s closest partners in the Quadrilateral diplomatic mechanism, which includes Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and which has sought to mediate the crisis since March.
In the conversation between Fidan and Abdel-Aty, the two ministers praised Ma Xinhua News Agency reported He described the meeting as “rapid progress” in bilateral relations between Türkiye and Egypt and reviewed the work of the quadripartite coordination framework. They stressed the need to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East and called for intensifying joint efforts to restore negotiations between the United States and Iran, specifically framing their goal around implementing the current US-Iranian memorandum of understanding through dialogue rather than military escalation.
The Quartet formula – which was held for the first time in Islamabad in late March after the start of US-Israeli military operations against Iran – served as the main tool used by Ankara to coordinate regional positions. Türkiye has consistently sought to position itself as a diplomatic channel capable of engaging all parties, including Tehran. Egypt’s joint condemnation of Iranian strikes on Arab countries, issued on Friday before Fidan’s call, indicates that Cairo’s tolerance for Iran’s regional behavior is under pressure.
Fidan and Abdel Ati also discussed the Palestinian situation. The two ministers reaffirmed their rejection of displacement attempts and demanded an immediate halt to the escalation in Gaza and the West Bank, in addition to the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid. They discussed the issues of Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Libya, and expressed their support for stability and sovereignty in each of those situations.
The conversation with Al-Safadi dealt with regional developments, according to what RIA Novosti reported from a source in the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. No additional details were provided, and the source merely noted that “the main focus was on the development of the situation in the region.” Jordan has been directly targeted by Iranian drone and missile strikes during the current conflict, giving Amman a more compelling security interest in how the standoff is resolved than Ankara believes.
The July 11 calls came amid ongoing regional diplomatic activity. Turkey’s status as a regional bridge-builder was boosted at the NATO summit in Ankara earlier this month, as Erdogan’s government reinforced its position as an indispensable country for the alliance’s communications with non-member states in the region. At the same time, Oman’s proposal for a two-lane Hormuz, the most realistic framework for de-escalation currently on the table, has given the Quartet an active file to move forward with both Washington and Tehran.
What Saturday’s calls did not resolve — nor claimed to resolve — is the gap between Ankara’s insistence on the memorandum of understanding as the way forward, and Cairo and Amman’s public condemnation of the party this framework aims to bring back to the table. It was not revealed whether Fidan’s separate talks with the two capitals pushed that gap in either direction.
